NEW YORK TIMES, Saudi Drifting/Racing

[INFO]

"Drifting, which tends to attract...."
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/wo...rift.html?_r=2

[Gran Dorifto]

Drifting, which tends to attract poorer, more marginal men, has also been an unlikely nexus between homosexuality, crime and jihadism since it emerged 30 years ago. Homoerotic desire is a constant theme in Saudi songs and poems about drifting, and accomplished drifters are said to have their pick of the prettiest boys among the spectators.

[Brian]

From what I have seen over the years, drift dudes DO act kind of *Censored**Censored**Censored*....

[eomund240]

“drifting,” an extremely dangerous practice in which drivers deliberately spin out and skid sideways at high speeds, sometimes killing themselves and spectators

Ya, under 100 street racing deaths in the US last year, and I'm willing to bet there were more drunk driving deaths last MONTH. But ya, drifting is the real danger.

Drugs sometimes also play a role.

100% Bull.

But a number of drifters have also become Islamic militants, including Youssef al-Ayyeri, the founder of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, who fought in Afghanistan and was killed by security forces in Saudi Arabia in 2003.

Sure, way to try to tie all drifters to Terrorists through at most a hand full of people.

“The idea behind drifting is, the economy and society don’t need you,” said Pascal Ménoret, an anthropologist who did four years of field work in Riyadh, the capital, and is now teaching at Princeton and writing a book on Saudi youth culture. “They are mostly young Bedouins who recently moved to the city, and whose lives are marked by suffering and self-destructive behavior.”

Ummmmmmmmmm, no. How about people who just like to have fun.

But most racers are more like young men almost anywhere: restless, thrill-seeking and madly in love with cars.

DING DING DING DING DING DING DING DING! First correct statement in the whole artical, and more than half way through it.

Sorry for the rant, but most of this article is complete BS.

As for the g ay comment, I don't follow. Shoot, one of the top drifters in the world is also a very well know dirty old man, and you can make a pretty easy guess at who I'm talking about.

[Formula D]

Should I send this to the author:

Robert,

I read your piece "Saudi's Race All Night, Fueled By Boredom" and must admit that I was quite intrigued that you might be implying that you found a link between the popular American and Japanese motor sport of drifting and that of bored, "homosexual", drugged up Saudi's simply abusing a car in whatever manner their limited skill or mind altering chemical or libation would permit. What they are doing is not drifting.

Seems to me those men use the term drifting as the preferred nomenclature because there really is no real word to describe what they do. Only a phrase comes to mind:

Dumb, idiotic driving.

Let me preface first by saying that I understand that your piece is an observational criticism and is to be taken in context of the individuals displaying that behavior, however I find it somewhat noteworthy that it only took a matter of seconds for the real drifting community to find this piece and express a sentiment of sarcasm mixed with audible laughs. If one thinks that escapades of the people your wrote even remotely resembles the professional act of drifting or resembles the people involved in this legitimate sport, that is quite counter-intuitive.

You quote:

"Drifting, which tends to attract poorer, more marginal men, has also been an unlikely nexus between homosexuality, crime and jihadism since it emerged 30 years ago."

Again, I understand this is in the context your your piece, but perhaps if a group a crazed Saudi's were doing crazy irrational political behavior and calling themselves "neocon's" then you as the writer might note that these people have no direct ties or relation to the neocons known in Western culture. I am willing to accept that perhaps you may not know of or may have never heard of drifting. That is, the drifting that most of the world recognizes as skilled control of a car in a safe, professional environment and most times in a competition format. In short, western drifting has absolutely zero parallels or relevance to your experience with "drifting".

One of the main reasons there are no parallels between the drifting you write of and the real drifting is that drifting is quickly becoming recognized as one of the fastest growing motor sports in the world. Drifting is a sanctioned and professional sport, not a recluse driving style practiced anywhere with an anything goes attitude. Major corporations act as sponsors and the drivers have been featured on major national advertising campaigns. Coincidentally, if you watched the Superbowl you may have seen a commercial showcasing a new vehicle and that vehicle drifting while being drifted by one of the top drifters in the world.

I am not trying to be critical of your piece, but rather to try and not let millions of your readers look at the "drifting" your wrote of become a word associated with some of the negative qualities you have so observed in your piece. That would not be fair to the real drifting.

If you care to see what real drifting is, there are quite a few resources out there that would make one hell of a story for the opposite of what you exposed.

Engaged Reader,

Ryan Sage'
Formuladrift.com

[eomund240]

I personally think that would be great. Especially one with as much influence on the sport as yourself.

Personally, I'm betting this is probably more of an underhanded attack against motersport in general, but it's horribly annoying when these people not only make false assumptions, they give false facts to skew an article in their favor.

[alex]

Formula D,

thanks for sending out your letter

[chrisfb]

Wow, so according to the New York times, (or rather one very misinformed writer) if you are a drifter you are *Censored**Censored**Censored* and linked to terrorism! lmao wow the ignorance in some people! This is just what this community needs! more of a bad wrap!

[Gran Dorifto]

As soon as people started to forget about Nick Hogan, The New York times releases this BS to set Drifting back another couple of years

[EasTSide DRiFto]

Didn't you know Nick Hogan is part of Al-kida..lol

[AllMotorKing]

the state of journalism and the new reporting business has gone to sh!t in the past few year. Is the NY Times just taking submissions from unknown bloggers nowadays?

[Sebring]

I think Ryan should give Robert free tickets to a FD event and have him do a write up on that.

[Formula D]

I'll give their whole staff free tickets so they can see what real drifting and the community is like.

[Cavi Mike]

I think it's funny. The way I see it, any publicity is good publicity.

[Sebring]

Mike has a Sheik fetish.